Katie Lou Writes

The discourse surrounding health and the body is not a new phenomenon, since the Medieval ages, vices such as “gluttony” and “sloth” have been associated with “the downfall of man”. To an extent, this can still be seen in the analysis of contemporary discourse and the mediation of health and the body. It can be considered that the health and body of an individual is no longer just a personal concern, instead, this has become a concept that is very much the property of society. The body is now judged based on its perceived usefulness to society in terms of physical contributions for society. Often, those who deviate from the societal ideal weight- either under or over- are dehumanised by media representations. Frequently, discussions about health and the body feature a significant focus on the statistical correlations between dietary issues and the risk of extreme and life-threatening illness, rather than any consideration of mental health or personal circumstances of the individual. Th...

The latest movie adaptation of Roald Dahl’s 1983 book The Witches caused major controversy within the disabled community due to its negative representation of limb differences. In Dahl’s original book and a 1990 movie adaptation, one of the ways to identify a witch is that they have claws instead of fingernails. However, in this latest adaptation, the ‘claws’ that the witches can be seen with look all too similar to ectrodactyly limbs, with their two fingers and thumb on each hand. Backlash towards Warner Bros quickly followed for the change, and those in the limb difference community started responding with #NotAWitch, including ex-Paralympian Amy Marren on both her Twitter and  Instagram , asking “was there much thought given as to how this representation of limb differences would affect the limb difference community?!” Despite Warner Bros apologizing and “regretting any offence caused”, this type of negative representation of disabled people in movies is all too prevalent in t...